We made a mad dash to the last local post office still open – Eastridge Mall. They wouldn’t guarantee overnight delivery for Express mail, which seems weird, but that’s the option I got. A long wait at Red Robin later rewarded me with a VERY tall glass of Blue Moon beer. It required an entire wedge of orange, it was so tall. And so tasty.

With help from Simple Diary.

Daylight savings made the day seem a lot shorter. There was barely tine for Final Cut to forget who I am (since I changed computers,) and cut out half a dress before dinner. With other folks in the house, I’m more likely to listen to interrupt-friendly “Wait, Wait” podcasts rather than narrative “Lincoln’s Melancholy,” which is quite interesting.

With pie for dessert, we caught up on “Community” via Hulu. I didn’t realize Joel McHale was such a hottie. I’m sure he buffed up for the Phys Ed episode, but still, yum!

This one is different than I’ve experienced in that it is a full course meal, instead of only sushi & sashimi. Except for the edamame, everything was individual portions.

I’m very sad that my camera SD card flaked out so you can’t see the beautiful agadashi tofu.

Whew! It’s a lot of food. At under $40, I think quite reasonable, too.

Miso Soup
1st dish

Plenty of tasty seaweed and just the right saltiness.

Edamame
2nd dish

“Not shown” Agedashi Tofu
3rd dish

So beautiful. Robust tofu, dipped in tempura batter and deep fried, then served in a light soup, with a bed of condiments on top.

Tuna Tataki
4th dish

Seared tuna with peppery sprouts and shredded daikon.

Ocean Salad
5th dish

Pickled wakame seaweed salad (yum!) with strips of fresh squid.

Shrimp gyoza
6th dish

I had hoped the mayo would be spicy, but it’s normal Kewpie mayo. I even missed hitting the shichimi. The dipping sauce was tasty. Can you see the shrimp tails peeking out of the dumplings?

Sashimi
7th dish

With the exception of the fish in the little blue dish, it is some of the finest sashimi I’ve had in a while. The lemon slices were brilliant with the salmon and mackerel.

Grilled Salmon Fin
8th dish

I usually eat the skin, too, but it was a bit too charred to eat.

Tempura
9th dish

I’m not a fan, but this was pretty good. Still a bit too oily, and not as light a batter as I like. I had to defend my kabocha pumpkin from Maureen, even though she had the same thing.

Udon
10th dish

Vegetable udon, but not Kitsune udon because there was no tofu cake. The mushrooms were lovely. The noodles were deliciously silky.

By this time we were near bursting. After the soup cooled a bit, it was more refreshing.

Green Tea ice cream
11th dish.

Whew! ごちそうさまでした!

While picking out seeds at Whole Foods, I saw this package of Micro Greens.

They are quite trendy right now, and it seemed a fun and not bitter way to add variety to salads. I dislike arugula/rocket, endive, and the other bitter lettuces. Plus they’re super easy, just scatter the seeds, let grow for 25 days, and done! This one is 20% red cabbage, 20% pak choy cabbage, 20% beets, 20% swiss chard, and 20% kohlrabi.

I used one of the window-style planter boxes upstairs for the first batch. Even though I put 1″ fencing over the top, the squirrels happily devoured anything that popped above it. The soil is fairly close to the top of the planter. So I lost perhaps half the greens that way.

I’ve fixed it for the other planters, which are downstairs. They are much deeper, so I can have the soil level about 3″ below the lip to keep the greens for ourselves. I’m spacing my plantings, so I have one batch almost half done, one I will plant tomorrow or Friday, and the one I harvested today.

Not much, but enough to top two salads, garnish two plates, or eat as a snack. I mixed in some cress seed to the next batch for a little more zing.

Since I’m still trying them out, I’m going to wait until I’ve eaten a few batches before deciding to get another packet of seeds. I should get two or three more plantings out of this one.

Evenings vary. Thursday, we ended up at Masala, rated the best Indian restaurant by San Diego magazine. It’s tasty, but pricey. Primarily, it’s convenient. Located in the Gaslamp district, adjacent to the convention center, it’s close by. Fortunately for us, but regretfully for them, most Con attendees are more interested in American or Continental fare. When we eat with Peter, those are the restaurants we usually end up at. Those restaurants pack quickly, but we were able to sail into Masala with a party of 5 and no waiting. ^_^ Eventually, it filled up as the adventurous overflow “settled” for Indian food. Heh, they are “settling” for better food than most of those other places serve.

Indian bread is fabulous. Masala offers a bread basket, which comes with plain nan, garlic nan, onion kulcha, and spinach kulcha. We ordered two. Masala also paid attention to the amount of spice, or lack thereof, that we preferred for our dishes. Joe had a lovely chicken vindaloo, which normally I find too spicy to eat. Shiaw-Ling and David shared chicken tikka masala. Carl had a shrimp dish, which I think was Bangalore shrimp. I had a lamb dish from the Chef’s recommendations, which I can’t find on their online menu.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

We happy eaters, waiting for the tasty food to come. Joe, Carl, David, Shiaw-Ling.

Such tasty treats. Non-veg appetizer, featuring deep-fried vegetables, tandoori chicken and kebabs. The bread basket. My very tasty lamb dish.

So much good food! See how we’re digging in?